Abstract

What is the place of contemporary Sri Lankan literature in English within the wider postcolonial literary canon and context? How does the work of resident writers relate to that of internationally acclaimed writers such as Michael Ondaatje, Shyam Selvadurai and Romesh Gunasekera? And to what extent has Sri Lankan literary production at home and abroad been shaped by the civil war that continues to tear the island apart? These are some of the key issues addressed in this seminal study. Focusing on ways in which cultural nationalism has influenced both the production and critical reception of texts, Salgado offers a detailed analysis of eight leading Sri Lankan writers and rigorously challenges the theoretical, cultural and political assumptions that pit 'insider' against 'outsider', 'resident' against 'expatriate', and the 'authentic' against the 'alien'. By interrogating the discourses of territoriality and boundary marking that have come into prominence since the start of the civil war, Salgado works to define a more nuanced and sensitive critical framework that actively reclaims marginalised voices, and draws on recent studies in migration and the diaspora to reconfigure the Sri Lankan critical terrain.